Back from ACEN, and noting I'm not 21 anymore...and can't party all night and shrug it off like I used to. Regardless, we have pics for you to fawn over. As is usual, if you're one of the cosplayers and see your pic in there, drop me a line if you wish, and I'll make them available.

So, after a few weeks, here's my little report on Anime Conji 2015. Kinda felt like this one needed a pick me up, even with some of what went down. Still, not a bad use of a weekend by any stretch. Take a gander inside, and check out what I thought. Maybe you'd like to attend in the future, who knows?

It should probably be noted at the beginning that if one is a photographer, it becomes an act of masochistic love to go to a convention of shiny cosplayers (yes, that was a deliberate Pokemon reference) with carpal tunnel syndrome. Thankfully, Anime Conji is a small convention and not the much larger Wondercon up in Anaheim. As it was, every single time I hefted the camera and took a photo, lancing pain through my hands and up my forarms was my reward.

This is the fifth year of Anime Conji, taking place at the Sheraton Hotel in the Marina across from the San Diego International Airport (no, really, you can walk across the highway to the airport just outside of the hotel) as it did the previous year. I admit to liking the Town and Country a lot better than the Sheraton due to the fact that it's a lot more accessible and the Fashion Valley Mall was in back of it, so one could bail out and get something to eat. Now, granted everything was spread all over the place at the Town and Country, but I'm thinking this could have mitigated somewhat by reserving more of the convention center proper with all of its little outlying rooms, but who knows how the hotel may have logistically fucked that one up to make that a nonstarter. But, whatever, it's at the Sheraton...nothing else to be done. Admittedly I wasn't planning on attending initially, but events did conspire to allow me the time and inclination to head over there. I'm not entirely certain what I went to, however. By that, I mean, a convention has a certain feel to it. This event was not lacking in it per se, but it was greatly lessened. Oddly, I even ran into an overbearing floor manager, and got kicked out of the Improv Masquerade, which is usually a threat at the larger conventions with such individuals; yet, even that didn't quite make me feel like I was at a convention. I think I get what it was, but I'll save that for later.

So, at this Anime Conji I managed to record far more video than last convention, which is good; though I did manage to get kicked out of the Improv Masquerade, but more on that in the convention report. I should note that the FAKKU panels did have material that most would consider explicit in nature. Viewer discretion is advised. And by that, I mean, if you're under 18, you don't watch this. Suffice it to say you can find the Improv Masquerade and FAKKU panels on Youtube and Vimeo respectively:

Well, as promised, here are the high def versions for the Sac Anime Summer 2014 movies as hosted by Nyaa Torrents, or you can click on the attachment below this news item (you have to hit 'read more' to see it). It's around 8GB worth of data, so be prepared for the load. Enjoy!

Okay, a bit of procrastination aside, we now have the Sac Anime Summer 2014 report up. I'm not the only one going to be doing one, or so I hope, so expect at least one more. I found this event to be pretty much stress free and generally fun; so why not check it out how I lived it?

I think this is the fourth year I've gone to this convention, having been convinced to go by Mayhem due to it being a smaller convention, and thus not prone to the same, shall we say, 'mishaps' that tend to occur at the larger ones. They're happier just having fun and hanging out with others that enjoy all the same things we do. Yes, that's an apt description; the smaller conventions have less drama and are more laid back overall. Unfortunately as a convention does grow, attendance grows so problems and other concerns creep up. Logistics gets more problematic due to more people getting involved, the need for more space becomes a greater issue, you can now bring in higher caliber guests, but have to deal with the baggage they carry, and so forth and so on. I mention this as I've seen it happen to two conventions so far: Anime Expo and Fanime. They each followed the same pattern. Even ACEN has done this to an extent, though I came in during their transition from smaller to larger convention (and there's other concerns with the midwestern convetions that have become more prevalent as time has gone on, but that's another article). I note this because Sac Anime is about where Anime Expo was in 1999, when I first went to it. I've seen this convention as it was, small and fun at the hotel, but now it's about to start making the leap into being a larger convention, and now we're all going to see how they handle it given all the examples and lessons learned in the past that are available. Let us hope they are students of history.

I've procrastinated long enough on this one. At great personal expense in the lack of sleep department, I have finally completed one of my longest reports, the one for Anime Expo 2014. In it I talk about the convention, its main events, and its triumphs and tragedies. I share news, photo, and video all done with my own personal brand of Gonzo Journalism which is not for the faint of heart, but is at least truthful...from my own perspective anyway. But why waste time? Why not head over there now and take a look? I'm sure you can find some useful tidbits in there and perhaps a bit of entertainment...or so I hope. Enjoy!

Have I really been doing this for around 15 years? Well, aside from the year 2000, yes, yes I have. In all this time I've typically gone to this convention with the same group of people; even going so far as to increase our participation in the conventions we go to by going as press under the auspices of Dragon's Anime and TFA Cosplay. That didn't happen this year. No, this year I was on my own in regards to being press as the core group couldn't make it this year due to various factors. Still, I wasn't totally on my own, as there were others who we've known for all this time who graciously invited me to room with them this year. This worked out a lot better than I'd have thought, because even though the Vagabond Inn up the road from the convention center was more expensive than we'd wanted, they had bunk beds of all things, which were far more comfortable than the Coleman Cots we're usually used to using when we stuff ourselves into these rooms. I'll have to admit though, this year put it into perspective on just how much I've come to rely on Gensao, Pio, and Mayhem for all sorts of things little and big when it comes to covering this convention as press which caused me to miss out on a lot more than I'd have liked. This doesn't count all the other disasters outside of everyone's control that wound up occurring.

Truly I have been a terrible terrible procrastinator when it comes to these movies. I have no excuses, but I do now have said movies torrents available. So without further ado, here are the Anime Expo 2014's Masquerade, Danny Choo Press Panel, and Myth: Legends of Burlesque and Magic movies that I managed to record this year as hosted by Nyaa Torrents or you can click the attachment to this news item below. I thought it was a good year for all of the above, and I only wish I could have done more were it not for circumstances out of my control unfortunately. Still, what I did get I hope does not disappoint. And aside from certain countries, Youtube's content management did not unilaterally make the videos unwatchable this time, and so you can watch them there too.